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  • AdAsia tackles the question of how marketers can make good use of the digital revolution.

    AdAsia: From chat rooms to Twitter

    By Akash Raha

    That the digital revolution is already here, and is here to stay, is a given. But marketers are still perplexed on how to make full use of this phenomenon. In AdAsia 2011 a complete session was devoted to this very issue, and to be more precise, the subject of social media was discussed. The session in context was called ‘From chat rooms to Twitter… what next?’

    The panelists at this session were Kate Day, Communities Editor, Daily Telegraph Online, Arvind Rajan, Managing Director & Vice President, Asia Pacific and Japan, LinkedIn and Earl Wilkinson, Executive Director and CEO, INMA. The session was moderated by Rishad Tobaccowala, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer, Vivaki.

    The session proposed that discussions were going to be a reverse of what this conference is about ‘Uncertainty: The new certainty’. What the session proposed was ‘Certainty: The new uncertainty’. It is certain that over the next few years the driving force will be social media. However, the uncertainty aspect is only what it means to marketers, media company etc.

    Ms Day said, “The question one often asks is, ‘What is the next big platform?’ My answer is it’s all about the people rather than the technology. Actually the underlying shift is with the patterns of behaviours of the people involved and audiences. Brand and customer relationship is the key. If that’s the case, then what platform is next does not matter because the people are here.”

    All the panelists stressed on the need to build consumer relationship and make the social media experience more real and humane. The consumers today want to interact with a human rather than with an automated interface, they want real conversation, moreover, in real time. It is essential to “get your own house in order and make the customers feel at home”. Also, often while we talk about social media, there are assumptions made about the product, content and consumers. Such clichés are something one should stay away from and not base one’s social media plans on them. Crating content and platform for ones invaluable customers is the key.

    FB, Twitter and LinkedIn are three global platforms, but as Mr Rajan said, the reason they are used still remain different. Twitter is a syndication platform. FB is for friends and family and LinkedIn is a professional network. The social media platforms are still new, there is still a lot to be done and lot of understanding needed. The essence is to have meaningful conversation with the audiences, connect with the customers and once that is done, it can be leveraged upon.

    Earl Wilkinson, of INMA also shared his learning in the field of social media apropos newspaper publishers across the globe. He pointed out how sharing has becoming the value added special sauce for journalism online. And in a way, he emphasized that digital times have saved journalism. Now that social media is here already, and everyone knows that communication is essential, the trick is how to structure the communication. For newspaper publishers, the way forward is going to be projecting newspapers and news brands as a trusted voice out in the community and the blog-sphere and get the audiences back on the websites.

    Arvind Tobaccowala of Vivaki said that the essence to being leader in social media space is differentiating content. Speaking about social media platforms he expressed hope for Google+. He said “Google is an amazing company… Believe it or not, Google+ will work, and it will work in a very big way. I don’t know how it will fit into broader eco system but it will be interesting to watch.”

    Pointing to sharing content on the social space as an interesting behavioural aspect and social media phenomenon, the panelists expressed hope that it will only grow further as it is a great way to engage with the audiences. Mr Tobaccowala also pointed out that on the social media space it is important to understand the behavioral aspects of the consumers. There are heavy users and heavy influencers. Right now the focus is less on heavy influencer… Heavy influencers can be further be divided into advocates and detractor. In a nutshell, he stressed that it’s imp to talk to detractors because they are the ones who are more vocal, even more than the advocates. Social media helps rediscover the idea of sharing in new and different ways to new and different audience. The essence is to start with Social media and start with it now. The panelists beseeched everyone to get on it and one might stumble upon something wonderful… “It is not necessary that you always know what you are doing,” said one of the panelists. Also, one should not look for any returns, one will get it eventually. Social media is new and still developing. Not everything that one experiments with comes out right, but one should try nevertheless. Ms Day emphatically suggested, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater,” advocating that even if a few ideas don’t turn out right, it is a must to explore social media, as it is the big thing of the future.

     

  • From insights into a changing world, to marketing solutions for an increasingly younger audience, and more… AdAsia got off to a stimulating start.

    AdAsia Exec Summary: Lively sessions mark Day One

    By Tuhina Anand

    AdAsia 2011 was inaugurated with the anthem of the Republic of AdAsia and a performance by the Shillong Choir Group.  This was followed by lighting of lamp by the Minister of Information & Broadcasting Ms Ambika Soni along with Dr Bhaskar Das, Co-Chairman of the Organising Committee and President, The Times of India Group and Mr Madhukar Kamath, Chairman Organising Committee for AdAsia and Group CEO and MD, Mudra Group. The flag for AdAsia was hoisted by Shahrukh Khan who also addressed the audience and reminded people of all the brands he has endorsed in his short speech. He however did emphasise that he believes advertising is not just for entertaining but about informing the consumer of a product so that when he or she is making a purchase he can make an informed choice.

    The keynote address was delivered by Mr Ram Charan, Author, Speaker and Business Advisor. The first session of the day was on ‘The Game Changers’ where Mr Harish Manwani, Chief Operating Officer, Unilever , and Chairman, Hindustan Unilever Ltd gave an insight into the company reinventing itself according to the changing times.  Mr Michael Roth, Chairman and CEO, Interpublic posed questions to Mr Manwani who answered all with aplomb. The key that emerged from this session was on the importance of adapting to the changing environment thus making the brands relevant to its consumers while at the same time being able to sell its products.

    The second session was on ‘Decoding the New Age Consumer’  where Mr Adil Zainulbhai, MD-India, McKinsey and Company Inc and Mr Laxman Narasimhan, Director, New Delhi, McKinsey & Company Inc, Mr Kochi Yamamoto, GM, Global Solutions Center, Dentsu tried to understand the behavioural pattern of the ‘New Age Consumer’.  The session gave insight into the changing world where the future remained uncertain and how marketers are grappling with this reality and trying to understand today’s consumers.

    Tom Doctoroff, JWT, North Asia, Area Director, Greater China CEO moderated the next session on ‘Asian Creative? A New Brief. On the panel were Akira Kagami, Global Executive Creative Advisor, Dentsu, Bruce Haines-Chief Strategy Officer, Cheil Worldwide, Kitty Lun, CEO, Lowe China and Piyush Pandey, Executive Chairman and CD, South Asia, O&M India. The panel gave an insight into creative from different countries where they operate including Japan, Korea, China and India. While Ms Lun talked about challenging authority and showing by example to help youngsters come up with great ideas. Mr Pandey brought into fore the relevant issue of remuneration where he stressed, ‘if you want good people, start paying them better’. Defending  standard of Indian advertsing, Mr Pandey said, “Just because a market is not in international domain for a century doesn’t mean that India is not into brand building.” He mentioned The Times of India and Cadbury’s advertising over the years that have made them successful brand in the country.

    Mr Kagami on the other hand who too was on the panel discussed the importance of corporate brand building that is critical in Japan as this helps in creating trust for thecorporate and its brands.

    Nikesh Arora, Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer Google gave a ‘Google’ angle to his session where he began by asking people to put questions to him as QandA was not allowed in the earlier sessions. This set the mood for his session.  The next discussion was on ‘From Chat Rooms to Twitter…What Next?’. Kate Day, Communities Editor, Daily Telegraph Online, Arvind Rajan, MD and VP, Asia Pacific and Japan, LinkedIn, Earl Wilkinson, Executive Director and CEO, INMA were on the panel which was moderated by Rishad Tobaccowala, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer, Vivaki.

    The last session of the AdAsia on Day 1 was on India 2020 where Kurush Grant, Executive Director, ITC, Sanjay Kapoor, CEO-Bharti Airtel Ltd, India and South Asia, Ravi Swaminathan, MD and Regional VP (Sales and Marketing), AMD South Asia shared views on how India can be made a truly global brand in the next 10 years. The session was moderated by Pankaj Ghemawat, Global Strategist.

  • With 54 percent of their business comes from the developing market, the HUL chief terms it the ‘emerging market company’ as the economic centres shift to emerging markets.

    AdAsia: Learning the rules of the game from Harish Manwani

    By Tuhina Anand

    So what does behemoth like Unilever do when a shampoo sachet priced at Rs 2 and projected at doing big sales doesn’t take off in the market? It focuses on listening to the consumers and gets an insight into why the market is not responding as expected. Then goes into reverse engineering which helps in bringing down the cost of the product, builds a manufacturing plant for sachets and prices the sachet at Rs 1, a pricing figure that consumers were more comfortable with thus getting the perfect recipe for success. This and many more such insights were shared by Harish Manwani, Chief Operating Officer, Unilever and Chairman, Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) who was speaking at AdAsia 2011 on the topic ‘The Game Changers’.

    Mr Manwani termed HUL as the `emerging market company’ as the economic centres shift to emerging markets. In fact, 54 percent of their business comes from the developing market. But one of the lessons to keep in mind is that it’s not one India but many Indias and how one caters to such heterogeneous consumers is the key to succeed. Affordability and accessibility needs to be kept in mind but at the same time one has to make money too and that’s where consumer insight comes in handy. He also talked about having a sharper focus on shoppers than consumers.

    The key that also emerged from this session was Unilever’s belief in doing well by doing good like the project Shakti that has empowered women which has also helped them in selling their product. The strategy that has emerged is of making brands meaningful as well as brands that are marketed should have a social purpose. Mr Manwani said, “We have been ensuring that all our brands just don’t have functional benefit but also has social benefit.” In fact Unilever factories have been working relentlessly towards sustainability and creating products through innovation that would also help in bettering our environment.

    This shift can also be seen in communication that Unilever has adopted like in the case of Surf where initially the messaging was simple and talked about the whiteness that is the basic want from detergent to taking the route of saving and addressing the housewives the obvious customer for the product in famous Lalita Ji. The communication has now taken the route of saving two buckets of water, thus the brand becoming socially responsible. So there is a technology that helps in building product that is superior and then there is communication that helps in delivering a social message with brands that have social purpose. That’s Game Changers.

    He also pointed that power of brands will not change, power of consumer insights will remain and so will the ability to create great advertising and its power will remain unchanged but going forward what will change or bring about a change will be the advent of the digital medium, the ability to work with consumers, importance of 360-degree communication, having a strategic and not opportunistic relationship with the agency and creating tools that will help marketers in knowing exactly where there money is going when they spend on advertising.

     

  • Delegates from 25 countries can look forward to three days of stimulating give-and-take as the annual advertising festival begins with a gala.

    Ad Asia set to take off

    By A Correspondent

    Close on the heels of the Formula One extravaganza comes the annual Asian advertising mela, AdAsia 2011, which begins tonight with an opening gala. The three days that follow will see sessions featuring some of the biggest names in the advertising, media and marketing fraternity take the stage and share their views with the more than 1,000 delegates from 25 countries who have registered for the event.  The theme of the congress is ‘Uncertainty: the new certainty’ but there is nothing uncertain about the buzz around AdAsia 2011, New Delhi.

    Over the 20 sessions planned for the congress, panels will share their invaluable experiences, insights and sharp analysis of ongoing events, providing new ideas, concepts and a firm handle on how the changes we are witnessing today will translate into trends in the future. They will go beyond analysis to address the question of ‘How’, and to elaborate innovative ideas and solutions to key global challenge.

    Some of the key members who will share their views include Harish Manwani, Chief Operating Officer, Unilever, and Chairman, Hindustan Unilever Ltd, Nikesh Arora, Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer, Google, Indra Nooyi – Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, PepsiCo, Joseph Tripodi – Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing & Commercial Officer, The Coca-Cola Company, David Droga – Founder, Creative Chairman, Droga5, Kelly Clark, Worldwide CEO, Maxus and Mainardo De Nardis, CEO, OMD Worldwide among othes.

    Piyush Pandey, Executive Chairman and CD, South Asia, Ogilvy & Mather India will be part of a session on `Asian Creative? A New Brief’ which will discuss if Asia can lead the next creative renaissance, what is lacking to achieve this and how it can be tackled. There will also be a session on ‘Conversation as a route to driving certainty’. The topic will be addressed by Chuck Brymer, President & CEO, DDB Worldwide and Nikesh Arora Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer, Google who has wide experience in various functions at Google. There will also be a session by BCG Japan on ‘Marketing to Women Consumers in Asia’ which will share insights and analyse traits of the Asian Woman Consumer and will try to ascertain whether her DNA affects her shopping habits. An interactive session with Luis DeAnda, Chief Operating Officer, TBWA\Hakuhodo, Japan will follow.

    Commenting on the Agenda and the delegate participation, Madhukar Kamath, MD & CEO, Mudra Group and Chairman of AdAsia 2011 said, “The amount of buzz and excitement this event has generated is truly incredible. I can confidently say that this is an Asian event that has caught the interest and attention of the world. Apart from Asia and the Middle East, even delegates from countries like USA, UK, Australia, Poland and Africa have registered for the event. The magnitude of the event this year is much larger than the previous years with nearly 50 speaker confirmations from across the globe. Delegates of AdAsia 2011 can look forward to intellectually thought provoking sessions of debates and discussions which will redefine how we look at the world we operate in. Speakers will include leading lights from the fields of business, marketing, advertising, media and communications.”

    This year AdAsia 2011 will also be different as it will bring to attention, provoke debate, and challenge the minds present to think of providing creative solutions to one of the critical issue on ‘The girl child’. During the AdAsia, this effort will surface in different aspects and areas of the congress. It will include a special presentation dedicated to ‘The Female Equation: Communicating with Conscience’  by  Frederika Meijer, Representative – India & Country Director- Bhutan, UNFPA.

    AdAsia began as a three-day Asian Advertising Conference in 1958 sponsored by the Japan International Advertising Association (JIAA). The principal objective of the conference was to give Asian advertising a boost in the post-war era. The conference was attended by delegates from six countries including Japan. The modest conference grew into a congress in the 1960s and was named AdAsia in 1984. AdAsia2011 is being organised under the aegis of the Asian Federation of Advertising Associations (AFAA).

  • On October 31, 2011 AdAsia began in New Delhi in Grand style. The opening ceremony hosted 1200 delegates from over 25 countries.

    AdAsia opens in grand style

    By Akash Raha

    AdAsia went underwent today with a gala high decibel opening ceremony called the ‘Zee Gala Night’. The event will host over 1200 delegates from over 25 countries. All the leading names of the advertising fraternity were present to grace the opening ceremony of AdAsia 2011, held in New Delhi.

    The evening began with traditional Cambodian dance which represented the dance of Asia. It was followed by several other dance forms from Taiwan, Thailand, Japan and not to mention, India. The day’s proceedings was anchored by the multi-talented Boman Irani who enthralled the crowd by his witty comments, his humour and not to mention, by singing wonderful songs. Mr Irani also announced the Chariman of AdAsia, Mr Madhukar Kamath of the in-the-news Mudra Group.

    This was followed by a speech by Mr Tejender Khanna, Lieutenant Governor of Delhi. Mr Khanna spoke about India, Delhi and the theme ‘Uncertainity: The new Certainity’.  A part of this amazing evening also was percussion maestro Taufiq Qureshi who enchanted the crowd with his amazing performance.

    The day ended with mouthwatering food and drinks. The food from all over Delhi was brought to the table for the delegates and was named ‘Streets of Delhi’.

    Day 1

    The day one of the conference begins today (November 1) with several key sessions and addresses by prominent members of our industry. The day will be started off with the Indian national anthem followed by a choir performance. Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan and Minister of Information & Broadcasting Ms Ambika Soni are scheduled to  be the guests of honour.

  • With just three weeks left for AdAsia, the total delegate count for the main event has touched almost 800. The theme is ‘Uncertainty is the new certainty’, and industry expectations from the event are high.

    AdAsia expectations soar

    By Shubhangi Mehta

    The excitement over Asia’s biggest management, marketing, media, advertising and communications congress is mounting. AdAsia 2011 is scheduled to be held over three days with 20 sessions, over 40 speakers and 800 delegates already registered.

    A panel of world renowned personalities from different walks of life will share their invaluable experiences, insights and sharp analysis of ongoing events, providing new ideas, concepts and a firm handle on how the changes we are witnessing today will translate into trends in the future. They will go beyond analysis to address the question ‘How’ and to elaborate innovative ideas and solutions to key global challenge.

    Indra Nooyi – Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, PepsiCo, Ram Charan – Business Consultant, Speaker & Author, Harish Manwani – COO, Unilever, Joseph Tripodi – Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing & Commercial Officer, The Coca-Cola Company and David Droga – Founder, Creative Chairman, Droga5, are some of the big names speaking at AdAsia 2011.

    Mr Bobby Pawar, COO, Mudra, said, “I am excited about AdAsia, we will get to listen to great people from in and out of the industry. To me this is very motivating. The theme for AdAsia 2011 is a great one and I totally agree with it, what will be interesting here is that what do  they say to focus more on this topic.”

    The conference is planned to engage and involve participants from the word go so that they are an integral part of the rethink of systems, strategies and solutions. Their thoughts and ideas will be instrumental in aligning these to a rapidly changing global business environment. The participants will also get a chance to connect with the right people both familiar and unknown who will challenge the way you think and act.

    Mr KV Sridhar, NCD, Leo Burnett, said, “AdAsia used to be a non-glamorous conclave for advertising industry, unlike other ad events which have awards as an integral part of their ceremony. This year though they are trying hard enough by getting great speakers, having a very interesting theme and overall spending luxuriously on the event. It will be interesting to see how much the event actually benefits from this. I am really looking forward to AdAsia this year as it will be fascinating to see how many industry people actually attend the event other than the speakers.”

    Mr Prathap Suthan, Chief Creative Officer, iYogi, said, “I will be going for AdAsia with a couple of my agency people. We are expecting to hear the best  of experts on ‘uncertainty is the new certainty’ as in my opinion the world has always been uncertain hence nothing can be regarded as certain. Steve Jobs’ death was not certain, anything that happens to anyone is never certain.”

    AdAsia began as a three-day Asian Advertising Conference in 1958 sponsored by the Japan International Advertising Association (JIAA). The principal objective of the conference was to give Asian advertising a boost in the post war era. The conference was attended by delegates from six countries including Japan. The modest conference grew into a congress in the 1960s and was nick named AdAsia in 1984.

    AdAsia2011 is being organised under the aegis of the Asian Federation of Advertising Associations (AFAA). AFAA was set up in July 1978, when representatives of advertising associations of ten Asian countries reached an unanimous decision to do so, based on the recommendations of a working committee formed at the 10th Asian Advertising Congress held in Sydney in 1976. The current members of the Federation include Advertising Associations from Bangladesh, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taipei, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Vietnam.

  • Early Bird offer on registration for AdAsia 2011 closes September 30

    Hurry to register at AdAsia for discounts

    Indian Delegates : Registration Fees – Rs 40,000; Early Bird – Rs 33,000

    International Delegates; Registration Fees –US$ 1,500; Early Bird – US$1,200

    Accompanying Person: Indian Delegates – Rs 10,000; International Delegates – US$500

    Early bird prices are available to those who register before September 30.

    The AdAsia agenda will feature more than 20 intellectually stimulating sessions that explore the business ecosystem and understand the nature of disruption. The topics have been carefully selected to stimulate exciting and cutting-edge debate on concerns vital to the marketing, advertising and media industries.

    • Can industry reinvent itself to fit the new world order?
    • Who will be the Game Changers?
    • Marketing is dead, engagement is in…Trust is dead, excitement and edginess are in. What are the new rules for survival for brands and their markets?
    • Has the DNA of the new consumer been decoded?
    • How will strategy and structure evolve to tango better?
    • The Asian conglomerate – just a pipe dream?
    • From Chat Rooms to Facebook to Twitter…..What Next?
    • Will Asia lead the next creative renaissance?
    • How will clients cut through clutter to navigate media traffic?
    • Can Unpredictability be managed in Life and Business?
    • Will Brands with a Conscience survive?
    • India 2020 – a global brand?

  • All set for new highs @ AdAsia 2011

    By Shruti Pushkarna

     

    Asia’s biggest Marketing, Media and Advertising Congress is less than two months away, and the Organizing Committee members of AdAsia 2011 seem all set to set new precedents in the history of AdAsia. Organizing Committee Chairperson and Group CEO-MD Mudra Group, Mr Madhukar Kamath, confesses, that after Jaipur 2003, the team is working hard towards setting a new benchmark.

    The theme for AdAsia 2011 is Uncertainty: The New Certainty. Extensive thought has gone into the content for AdAsia 2011. As opposed to Jaipur 2003, where the city had the advantage of virtually no distractions, Delhi is a bigger challenge. Mr Kamath admitted, A lot of thinking has gone into the 20 unique sessions for this year as the biggest challenge was to keep the audience inside the halls hooked enough with great content, knowing that Delhi as a city is full of distractions.

    Adding to this, Mr Ashish Bagga, Co-Chairman of the Organising Committee and India Group CEO, said, We have looked at all the highs of Jaipur and made them higher and we’ve looked at all the lows of Jaipur and made them into our strengths Delhi will be far far better than Jaipur in every which way. Delhi is going to be the New Certainty in making the new benchmark of AdAsia.

    Speaking at a press conference in the Capital on Thursday, the Committee presented the media with a quick peek on the programming. Day1 will open with a keynote with Mr Michael Roth, Chairman & CEO, Interpublic and Mr Harish Manwani, COO, Unilever. This will be followed with uniquely designed sessions for the following two days.

    With eight Indian panelists and nearly 40 foreign speakers, AdAsia 2011 seems a promising delight for the industry across Asia. No AdAsia in the last 26 years has had this ensemble of speakers, said Mr Kamath.

    Bollywood actor and theatre artist Mr Boman Irani will host the event and there will be spectacular performances by Mr Shiamak Dawar’s dance troupe, as well as Shillong Choir, the winners of popular reality show India’s Got Talent. Day 1 will also see a rare musical ensemble led by the famous percussionist, Mr Taufiq Qureshi, son of legendary tabla maestro, Ustad Allah Rakha. Everyone inside the hall will be making some music, remarked Mr Kamath.

    The event promises to be not just the biggest international gathering of industry stalwarts but also a cultural gala. On the schedule are Kathak performances, a Vietnamese evening, and theme lunches and dinners to look forward to. The streets of Delhi will be recreated on the Taj lawns, displaying foods of Delhi and street performances, said Kamath.

    With around 1,200 delegates expected this year, over 400 will be international delegates alone. The neighbouring countries like China and Pakistan have shown an overwhelming response, with over 100 pre-registration requests from Pakistan and around 30 from China so far. Mr Kamath said that there have been about 300 registrations so far, and more are expected.

    A high-profile event, AdAsia will see government participation with confirmations from the Delhi Chief Minister and I&B Minister for the opening ceremony. Bollywood veteran Mr Amitabh Bachchan, and actors Mr Shahrukh Khan and Mr Aamir Khan have also been requested to attend. So keeping the high profile in mind, strict security measures will be in place.Although we don’t take responsibility for any quakes, quipped Mr Bagga.

    Answering questions about the business prospects of the event, Mr Bagga stated,This is not a money making thing, it’s a knowledge sharing platform.As for the speakers, Mr Kamath said, All of them, barring a few listed professional speakers, agreed to attend at a very reasonable price.

    Although the committee members expressed their desire to reach out to the maximum number of management students in the country through this platform, there are no discounts on offer. The delegate tickets are priced at Rs 33,000 for early birds and Rs 40,000 post September 30.

    However, there are contests on social media, like Twitter and Facebook, and winning these can get you registration waivers. All you need to do is, upload a 10 slide presentation on the theme, Uncertainty: The New Certainty. These presentations will be judged by the members of the Advisory Board of AdAsia 2011.

    Vietnam will play host to the next AdAsia. As for AdAsia 2015, Thailand and Taiwan are competing to host it. Details about the event can be found at http://adasia2011.com/index.html

     

  • AdAsia 2011: The colour and the certainty

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    By Dhara Salla

    The logo for AdAsia is a colourful creation based on the different fabrics one can find all over Asia, and the theme of the marketing, media and advertising congress is Uncertainty is the New Certainty.

    AdAsia will be held in New Delhi from October 31 to November 3, 2011. This is its 27th edition and it will be presented by the Asian Federation of Advertising Associations. The chairman of the organizing committee is Mr Madhukar Kamath, group CEO and MD, Mudra group; the committee also consists of co-chairman Mr Ashish Bagga, CEO, Living Media India Ltd; co-chairman Dr Bhaskar Das, President, The Times of India group and Mr Uday Shankar, CEO, Star India.

    The congress is divided into 20 sessions with 50 speakers from the world over  ranging from creative spark Mr David Droga to Lever honcho Mr Harish Manwani  out of which 38 have been confirmed. The list of speakers also includes people like Mr Sanjay Kapoor – CEO, Bharti Airtel, Mr Salman Amin, EVP and Chief Marketing Officer, PepsiCo, and Mr Chris Thomas, Chairman and CEO of BBDO Asia, Middle East and Africa and Chairman of Proximity Worldwide, to name a few.They are awaiting the confirmation from Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan. The upper limit of the number for the delegates attending the event is 1,000-1,200. Around 300 registrations have been confirmed, said Mr Kamath.

     

    The event promises to be not just the biggest international gathering of industry stalwarts but also a cultural gala. On the schedule are Kathak performances, a Vietnamese evening, and theme lunches and dinners to look forward to. The streets of Delhi will be recreated and will display foods of Delhi and street performances, said Mr Kamath.

    AdAsia already has a few co-sponsors on board, and the scale of the event means it is bound to be big-budget. Mr Kamath did not reveal the budget but said the title sponsorship cost around Rs 4 crore and the co-sponsorship would start from Rs 50 lakh.

     

    The marketing strategy for AdAsia this year includes heavy use of social media such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

     

    Asked what the event promised, in a nutshell, Mr Kamath thought for a while and answered, Incredible learning and enthrallment from the congress sessions.

     

    More information can be had at www.adasia2011.com.

     

    Related Stories

    http://www.mxmindia.com/2011/09/adasia-2011-a-new-benchmark-in-the-making/

     

  • Optimistic about newspaper business, Ravi Dhariwal says challenges can be overcome if industry joins hands and collaborates to find solutions.

    The future is rosy, says Ravi Dhariwal

     

     

     

    By Tuhina Anand

     

    Newspapers have a strong future ahead, says Ravi Dhariwal, President, INMA Worldwide and CEO, The Times of India. Sharing his views with the audience at INMA: 5th South Asia Annual Conference on the Global Newspapers and South Asian Opportunities, he said that the industry can unitedly face down the challenges confronting it, and continue on the growth path.

     

    Print players in developed markets when faced with pressure on profitability coupled with losing their revenues started focusing on the cost. The result was a cut in journalists, cut pages, and cut quality. They got seduced with the argument that the business was not well balanced, circulation not earning enough money and being too dependent on advertising to recover the cover price. On the other hand, the consumers have tons of option, multiple platforms while the truth of newspaper also exists that the brand has slimmed down from 48 pages to 24 and journalism was not of the same quality that they were used to. Consumers had to pay double the amount for a newspaper so the value equation particularly in the US got horribly wrong. This led to increased pressure of people but Dhariwal pointed that the situation is stabilizing now particularly on accounts of circulation, balance sheets and profitability pressure.

     

    He said, “I think the industry went through a phase of evaluation where they were came to a basic conclusion that digital is where the growth is and they must invest heavily there at the expense of print. That difference led them to doing things first for the digital and at the expense of print because they didn’t have monies to put both sides. They said all growth will be in digital so let’s invest there.”

     

    After making this point, Mr Dhariwal said that this assumption has a few problems, the first being that Digital at best in most advanced environment comprises only 10 per cent of the revenue, the rest being still from print. He said, “So if you put all your money in 10 percent and neglect the 90 percent there is a problem.” He also said that digital for a news media company is an inherent problem because very little of a person’s time on digital gets spent on news. As a result digital for a news company will always be the country cousin. Also the demographics in South Asia, with increasing urbanization, literacy, income and a young curious democracy, works as a great combination for newspapers to grow. He said, “The industry does grow in our country by 4-5 percent per annum. Readership doesn’t grow as fast, though it is not declining, but it doesn’t get reflected because of the way readership is measured in India currently.”

     

    Another reason why he remains bullish about the growth of newspapers is because the newspaper adds fantastic value to households. He said, “It’s a medium that allows an individual to spend 20 minutes of their quality time for less than Rs 3 and if you have a thrifty wife like mine you will get a rupee back at the end of the month by selling it in raddi. So for Rs 2 you get a newspaper at great pricing but what is even better is that it gets home delivered.”  Another reason for growth is because the editorial quality has improved. He said, “I think our editors are increasingly aware of what is happening to our readers and the newspaper reflects the interest of the readers – politics, local, community. Increasingly quality of newspaper is getting better and I am confident that the paper I read is getting better every day. Also in our country people in newspaper business are ambitious, they are not happy with just influencing people but want to see their business grow. They have brought multiple editions and geographic expansion; like it’s astounding that Dainik Jagran has 295 editions. Even at TOI, we have many editions but there lies tremendous opportunity in markets like Kerala, some big city in TN, AP. In expansion we not only give our readers great value but also great choice.”

     

    What one should worry about, he said, is how to manage cost and how to continuously innovate to give more to advertisers. He said, “As long as we invest behind innovation, quality of editorial product, keep price low, and the product is home delivered, then we don’t have to worry. We have a reason to celebrate.  The opportunity is that we have an editorially curated product which is now being able to be displayed and expressed in different platforms. We should go after that because the reader is going after that. I have always maintained that for us it’s not digital first or print first. It is not print dollars and digital dimes but Its Print and Digital.” Even media companies have realized this and have become multimedia companies, adapting to this change.

    The biggest of the challenges, he said, is that of managing cost, newspapers not being attractive to FMCGs who are the biggest advertisers and have turned to TV, environment where the government tries to create misunderstanding and rift among employees and lastly lurking fear of ‘what if’ digital expands dramatically and affects print. However, to a large extent he said that these challenges can be overcome by collaborating as an industry to find solutions and bring about a change.

     

     

     

     

     

  • INMA aims to reach a wider audience, says the outgoing president, adding that falling readership and rising ad costs are a two-pronged challenge the industry has to tackle.

    INMA 2011: Membership targets in sight, says Tariq Ansari

    By Tuhina Anand

    At the concluding ceremony of INMA’s 5th South Asia Annual Conference, MXM India caught up with Tariq Ansari, INMA South Asia’s outgoing President and Managing Director, Mid-Day Multimedia Ltd. From Mr Ansari, Sanjay Gupta, Director, CEO and Editor, Jagran Prakashan Ltd takes over as President INMA South Asia.

    Mr Ansari has played a key role in bringing INMA to South Asia and has held the position of President for the last two years. Talking about his task at INMA, he said, “I have been responsible for running the INMA platform in South Asia, making conferences happen and ensuring we build a significant membership.  On all these, I think we have progressed significantly.  The idea is to be of use to the industry and give back to the industry. As past president I remain on the board and I am available when required.”

    Explaining why the INMA membership remained confined to just 13 organisations even though there are many players in this category, he said, “INMA had the target of going after large newspapers first. While we have only 13 newspaper organization members, there are around 500 people in this country who have access to INMA through these companies. As we come of age – and we haven’t been here for long as this is the 5th conference in South Asia – there will be conscious effort to build our membership and deliver its benefits to a larger audience.”

    Mr Ansari said he hopes that INMA delegates after attending the seminars would take away some questions on what is going to be the future of their enterprise and directions it can take both in terms of strengthening the business and where future opportunities might lie.

    Talking about what ails the print industry, he said, “Speaking from the perspective of an urban English newspaper, I think the readership is getting stagnant but on the other side the cost of inputs – the cost of journalism, newsprint, running the business – is driving the rate of advertising very high. So we have got a situation where readership is not growing but advertising rates are going up. That is the fundamental problem to the business to my mind.”

  • The key to growth is for newspapers to transform into newsmedia, says Earl Wilkinson.

    INMA 2011: New Oxygen, New Growth

    By Tuhina Anand

    Earl J Wilkinson, Executive Director and CEO, INMA spoke on New Oxygen, New Growth at the INMA-5th South Asia Annual Conference, titled ‘Roots and Wings – strengthening our core business and exploring new opportunities’. During his presentation, Wilkinson spoke about the transformation from being a newspaper to newsmedia which is where the opportunity for growth lies. The key is to identify the platform values of each medium be it newspaper, Smartphones  or tablets and use them accordingly.

    Wilkinson said, “The consumer view of newspaper is changing today as they are accessing news from webs or apps. With the changing view there is also need of new skill sets for the new media including next generation data analysis and deep understanding of consumer behavior among other factors.” He pointed that culture change is the foundation for growth story line.

    He listed three challenges that publishers are facing today- identify growth, how to remain relevant and manage complexity. He also listed the growth levers for news publishers which include operational efficiency, superior competitive strategy, best practices, sales excellence among others but what is relevant is that in this list culture change has moved up the ladder and become a key lever for growth.

    On Culture Change, he underlined the importance of listening to the market, focus relentlessly on differentiators and prioritize expenditure while putting away the rest. Wilkinson said, “Culture change is the only path to growth and in the new ecology to succeed one needs to prioritise platforms and diversify revenue streams.”

    He also talked about integration being the future and pointed how many print people are touching digital but not vice versa. He added, “While culture change is crucial to revenue, there is also a need to speak, understand and invest in readers and not indulge in one way conversation with them.”

    Opening the session and giving an overview, Tariq Ansari, INMA South Asia President and MD, Mid-Day Multimedia Ltd said that the sessions over the two days will look at imparting pointers on ways of strengthening existing business , understanding verticals where investments can be made and at the same time think on new horizons and take their business forward.

    I Venkat, Conference Moderator and Director, Eenadu talked about reinventing the print medium. He mentioned how print has undergone change with segmentation with introduction of city supplements and focusing on its target audience. He also highlighted the example of Filmfare and Femina which have enlarged their purview with awards and beauty competition. The newspapers are leaving no stone unturned to reach its TG by getting into festivals, awards, educations and job fairs too.

    He also talked about localized newspaper where Eenadu has gone beyond city, district, zone to constituency. He concluded by saying that for a newspaper every column is an opportunity. He added, “The print advantage is that while you can zap an ad on television, same is not possible in print.”